The Lecture
One aspect of the Anthropocene in need of better concepts and methods of analysis is the behavioural and cultural change among animals exposed to human activity. While environmental discourse is full of generalisations about the reach of human disruption and the inescapability of entanglement, the anthropocentric notions subtending the ‘two cultures’ divide still inhibit better understandings of just how wildlife are changed by various forms of encounter. Drawing on research in the history and philosophy of ethology, zoo biology and conservation biology that explores the value of habituation in behavioural studies, the traumas of captivity and the vicissitudes of domestication and rewilding, this lecture seeks to disentangle some varieties of anthropogenic transformation so as better to navigate the murky ethopolitical terrain of the Anthropocene.
About the Presenter
Matthew Chrulew (@negentropist) is a writer and researcher from Boorloo/Perth. His fiction has appeared in Westerly, Cosmos and Ecopunk! and his essays in Angelaki, New Literary History and Biosemiotics. He recently edited the anthologies Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures and (with Thom van Dooren) Kin: Thinking with Deborah Bird Rose. He was a founding associate editor of Environmental Humanities journal, and edits the book series Animalities at Edinburgh University Press. He works as a research fellow at Curtin University.
The Anthropocene lecture series
The Anthropocene is a widely used term that designates the most recent epoch in Earth's history: an epoch in which humans have radically altered (and disrupted) the climate and ecosystems of the planet.
The annual Welcome to the Anthropocene lecture series invites scholars and researchers across the humanities, social and natural sciences to explore how their disciplines are responding—both to the concept of the Anthropocene, and to the planetary crisis that it designates.
For the 2023 Anthropocene Lecture Series we've invited leading international scholars. Read more about the other lectures in the series here.
2023 Convenors and organizers: Pierre du Plessis and Anna-Katharina Laboissiere
How to attend
The 2023 lecture series are free and open to the public. You can either attend in person at the University of Oslo or on Zoom. Register in advance to join.